Europe’s #1 Energy Tech Event Returns to Bilbao

Energy Tech Summit – top energy tech industry event in Europe returns to Bilbao, Spain on April 15-16, gathering over 1,500 attendees and 100+ speakers from over 50 countries to tackle the challenges, opportunities and policies for pushing the energy transition forward. 

Hosted by Contrarian Ventures with a main partner BBVA and supported by the Government of Bizkaia, this two day summit will address the critical challenges, opportunities, and policies shaping the future of the energy transition. This event offers a high-impact platform to showcase latest industry innovation while connecting investors, founders, and decision-makers.

What’s on the Agenda?

Created with advisors from companies like Microsoft, AWS, Shell, SAP, Aramco Ventures, and more, this year’s agenda spans the full energy and climate innovation stack – from infrastructure and artificial intelligence to climate policy and investment. 

Key themes include:

• Green Energy Infrastructure – covering the infrastructure innovations and real‑world case studies driving large‑scale change;
• AI x Energy – exploring  how artificial intelligence is reshaping energy systems and how energy infrastructure is evolving with the power of AI;
• ⁠Climate Hardware X – focusing on tangible hardware innovations that turn climate ambition into real-world solutions;
• Climate Software X – addressing how software is tracking emissions, enabling climate data insights, and scaling sustainable solutions worldwide;
• Climate policy – leveraging national and regional regulatory frameworks, incentive structures, permitting reforms, market designs and public‑sector leadership;
• Financing the Climate Stack – exploring financing for climate resilience and sustainable growth.

Together, these themes bring industry leaders, startups, investors, and policymakers into a shared conversation focused on delivering practical, real-world solutions at scale.

Leaders & Experts joining

The 2025 edition of Energy Tech Summit brings the the top voices of the industry to curate the event’s agenda, share ideas and spark discussions that matter. Top voices include: 

• James Lockyer, Director, Climate Innovation Fund at Microsoft
• Helena Chao, Managing Director, Head of Crossover & Sustainability Investor Coverage, Global Investment Banking at Bank of America
• Matt Campbell, CEO & Co-Founder at Terabase Energy
• Veery Maxwell, Partner at Galvanize Climate Solutions
• Gaetan Bonhomme, Partner at Breakthrough Energy Ventures
• Andrew Beebe, Managing Director at Obvious Ventures
• Cindi Bough, Managing Director at Climate Investment
• and more.

See the full lineup: https://energytechsummit.com/advisory-board/

The Growth meets side-event series

Growth Meets is our invite-only side event series, designed for curated meetings between influential investors, startups, and corporate leaders:

• Growth Meets Capital, hosted by Contrarian Ventures and BBVA, connects 50 Series A+ startups with 50 growth-stage funds in an exclusive setting for deal-making opportunities you won’t find anywhere else.
• Growth Meets Industry, also hosted by Contrarian Ventures and BBVA, brings together startups, investors, and corporates for thematic roundtables on topics such as scaling ESG solutions, eco-aggregates, carbon markets, biomethane, and battery innovation. Each session, co-led by partner organizations, provides focused conversations aimed at advancing sector-wide solutions and driving real impact.
• Growth Meets Infrastructure (Compute Summit), hosted by Contrarian Ventures, is an invite-only forum for energy infrastructure leaders to explore emerging trends, uncover opportunities, and forge strategic partnerships. Through high-impact deal-making sessions and thematic deep dives, Compute Summit gives decision-makers a private platform to accelerate capital deployment and scale innovation.

Energy Tech Challengers: platform to showcase innovation

At the core of the event, Energy Tech Challengers will spotlight 70 top industry startups across 7 different tracks. From green energy infrastructure, to AI for energy and energy for AI, to climate software, hardware and future of materials and manufacturing – innovations will cover all the key areas in the industry. The challengers will pitch to an international expert jury for the title of the ultimate winner.

Success stories from our attendees

Our attendees are not just companies – they are high-growth leaders shaping the future of energy. Energy Tech Summit brings together scaleups that secure major funding rounds, win industry awards, and turn innovation into impact.

Returning sponsor Climeworks, for example, raised $162M in July 2025 to advance its best-in-class carbon removal technology and expand its CO₂ removal platform. Hive Power, a 2024 Energy Tech Challenger, secured €3.5M in seed funding with participation from summit sponsor Axpo. XFuel raised $20M Series A with an investment from Audacy after Toby Chan met their CEO at Energy Tech Summit 2023. 

These are just a few of the many success stories that have emerged from the Energy Tech Summit ecosystem. The next one could be yours.

Join the event: https://energytechsummit.com/

About Energy Tech Summit 2026

Energy Tech Summit is Europe’s #1 climate and energy tech event that fosters innovation, collaboration and deal-making . Hosted in the vibrant city of Bilbao, it brings together startups, investors, corporates, utilities, policymakers, and climate leaders for two transformative days of quality networking.

“The summit’s message is clear: no more debate. It’s time to deliver,” said Rokas Pečiulaitis, Co-Founder of Energy Tech Summit. “Energy Tech Summit 2026 gathers those building solutions, not just merely theorizing them, thus building the future on the industry.”

For more information, including the full agenda and registration, visit energytechsummit.com

This article was written by the Energy Tech Summit team. IIoT World is a media partner for Energy Tech Summit, and they were a media partner for IIoT World Energy Day.